Silver Sidelines

Matters have moved on since my recent Post detailing the arrival of the Diamond Jubilee Britannia (R3094). The donor – Hornby William Wordsworth R2563 Firstly a view of the model that was to provide the tender with the Late Crest. At the time of writing my last post there were issues with William Wordsworth. I would give it a new identity with a tender with an early emblem and at a suitable time I would sell it After recovering the white roof, R2563 Left R3094 Right   Perhaps I should have attempted to strip the white paint off the roof of Britannia R3094? My first attempts at repainting were not altogether successful. As the paint dried the rivet detail began to appear through the new paint as a pattern of white dots. I would start again. This time I over coated the whole of the white roof area with Humbrol matt black paint. When this had dried the central area was given a second coat of matt black and the sides above the windows were coated with Humbrol GWR green. Now near...

This week saw the arrival of Bachmann 32-451, otherwise known as D369. The ‘Bible’ in 1960 The introduction of the English Electric Type 4 took place back in 1958. This was some 56 years ago towards the end of my ‘train spotting’ career. More like class of sixty than class of forty. Despite being a diesel locomotive as opposed to steam, the Type 4s made a lasting impression and I bought my first Bachmann model, D325 (32-477) in May 2007. This was the ‘custard dip’ version and it was soon followed in the June by D210 (32-478) new from Hattons, a BR (LMR) engine. After some searching it was followed by D368 (32-475) with small yellow pane new from Scalerail, which seemed to fit better with my north east memories. The Bachmann Type 4s were super smooth and powerful runners compared to the split chassis steam outline models of the period and I was fortunate to find a fine example of D396 to make a set of four. I was never happy with the all yellow front of D325 and it was so...

I would say that the newly tooled Hornby Britannia is one of the best models of all time.   I would buy one of the Diamond Jubilee sets that have been recently advertised.   I already had a couple of ‘Britannias’ with the modified smoke deflectors.   With R3094 there was the opportunity to acquire a model fitted with the original ‘dangerous deflectors’ with handrails. Hornby R3094 Diamond Jubilee Train Pack What is in the train pack?   I can confirm that you get a model that is supposed to be representative of preserved 70000 ‘Britannia’ as running in 2012.   The locomotive comes with the latest overhead warning symbols, a speed recorder is fitted but the coupling rods are fluted.   There is no air compressor. The tender has an Early Emblem and the axle boxes are picked out in yellow to indicate roller bearings.   Oh yes, the model comes with the cab roof painted white as applied historically to engines hauling the British monarch.   At...